What it is
A salar is a closed evaporative basin — a salt flat formed where inflow water evaporates faster than it can escape the basin, leaving behind progressively concentrated salts. The largest commercial salars occur in the high Andes of South America (Atacama, Uyuni, Hombre Muerto, Olaroz, and dozens of others), though analogues exist in Tibet, Nevada, and elsewhere.
Salars host the world's most commercially important lithium brines. The combination of volcanic lithium sources in the surrounding geology, aridity that concentrates any lithium dissolved in inflow water, and the closed-basin geometry (no drainage, allowing brines to accumulate over geological timescales) together produce the lithium concentrations that make commercial production feasible.
Why they matter
Global lithium supply depends heavily on a relatively small number of producing salars. The Lithium Triangle in South America holds an estimated 50–60% of identified global lithium resources. The Atacama alone accounts for a significant fraction of current global production.
Salar geology that matters for exploration
- Heterogeneity within a salar. Lithium concentration varies 3–5× across lateral distances of a few kilometres within a single salar. Portfolio-scale pre-drill mapping is necessary to identify DLE pilot sites and optimize drill sequencing.
- Depth to productive aquifer. Not all salar brine is economic. The productive aquifer interval — where the brine is fresh enough to flow and concentrated enough to process — sits at different depths in different salars.
- Adjacent sedimentary basins. Basin-fill sediments around the classic salars can host secondary lithium resources that are often under-explored compared to the salars themselves.